This Tuesday, the latest ARS bulletin revealed that the CHUM intensive care unit no longer has covid patients in critical care. The circulation of the virus is weakening in Martinique, yet the fight is not over.
Nearly twenty people remain hospitalized at the CHU due to covid, and 5 people died last week as a result of the virus.
Nevertheless, these figures offer a glimmer of hope. A year ago, in August, the territory was struggling through the fourth wave. It was a particularly macabre period, marked by many deaths.
According to Professor André Cabié, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at the CHUM, this is the first time since March 2020 that no covid patient has been in intensive care in Martinique:
It is true that in intensive care we have always had people since March 2020. Today, the fact that there are no longer people in intensive care confirms the decline of the epidemic, even if it is not not finished. Every day, there are still admissions to medical wards. Maybe even tonight there will be someone in intensive care once more. We are no longer at all in the dramatic situation of last year but it continues all the same. The people who are hospitalized are now very fragile people, often elderly people with many pathologies.
To continue to fight the virus, vaccination is still in force, and additional doses might be administered in the coming months:
What we do know is that the immunity and defense that is provided by the vaccine decreases over time. With the variants that there have been, the vaccines that have been used are much less effective in preventing infection. So, all this justifies taking a fourth dose, especially for frail people, health professionals, and people over 60 years old. There are new vaccine formulations that are expected with effective vaccines once morest several variants. It has been announced but we are waiting for the moment.
